Tuesday, July 10, 2007

My lawn looks like shredded wheat

Talked to Matt of Matt's Fast Lawn Care this morning. "We need rain," says Matt, who only gets paid when he's out there mowing. Don't think he has many seasonal contracts. Good thing Matt's got a second job. The guy loves to work. But he'd rather be mowing than retreiving carts at the local Kroger where he's worked for years.

The neighborhood's been strangely silent these past few weeks. The mowers are silent. The grass in my back yard looks like shredded wheat. Who can afford to water? Water is expensive here. Hey, somebody has to pay for the new water plant and the upgrades to our sewage treatment plant, right?

This isn't the picture I had in my mind of my property this spring, not after II practically emptied the big box stores in a 50- mile radius of pavers and wall blocks (both were on sale) this past winter. Yes, the plan was to design and build an incredible patio behind our home. (Ahhh, starry summer evenings and me and the mrs. relaxing on comfy chairs, foo-foo drinks in hand, soft rock in the background.)

Instead, the yard's a disaster. The aging, sagging deck that graced the rear of our home has been reduced (finally) to a huge pile of weathered lumber. It's a toss up if that mess looks worse than the mess of the nearby huge stack of wall blocks and pavers, and all the other crap that accumulates around an abandoned work site — wheelbarrows, shovels, garden hoses.

All I need now to complete the picture of a landscape from hell is a sun-faded Pontiac Firebird on blocks and a clawfoot bathtub planted with petunias and marigolds.


I'm going to have to suck it up and get back to this project one of these days. — Ron Hall

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